Cessation
by oz-cocoa
Summary: There weren't many people who really knew Kusatsu Kinshiro; and even less who knew the personal life of Yufuin En. One such secret is that the two of them knew each other before middle school. Were even friends, once. Pre-Series, Pre-Kinatsu, Kinshiro/En Friendship.


**A/N: A little oneshot I wrote for a gift exchange in the fandom for White Day. I plan to have three more parts but it can be considered complete and stand on it's own. I wonder when season two is coming out? And an info sheet on Kinshiro's character with the translation underneath I saw on the internet one day, it says his hobby is archery. In this fic, later on at least, it gives the explanation that summer camp is where Kinshiro first learned it, and learned to like it from.**

Challenge: Boueibu Dreamwidth Mirror's "Love Letters Exchange"

Recipient: vagarius

Title: Cessation

Summary: There weren't many people who really knew Kusatsu Kinshiro; and even less who knew the personal life of Yufuin En. One such secret is that the two of them knew each other before middle school. Were even friends, once.

Rating: SFW/K+

Characters: Kinshiro Kusatsu and En Yufuin

Pairings: N/A, Friendship (Developing)

Love Letters: Childhood AU, Loneliness, Future

* * *

They were nine years old when they first met. It wasn't that they shared the same primary school, no, it was still just Kinshiro and Atsushi in those days.

It was at Kinshiro's first year of summer camp.

And no, contrary to what you might think (because of his own uptight behaviour, one might add), it was not at some prestigious beach-side resort for petit protégés of the rich and famous. It was at an honest-to-goodness overnight camp in the middle of the woods, next to a small lake, with cabins, graffiti-covered bunk beds, mess hall, and worst of all _outhouses_ not to mention the mosquitos. (Wifi and electronics besides his phone didn't matter so much to him back in those days. And the phone was to use only in case of an emergency, and to call his parents every night before he went to sleep, in this particular situation.) Just because Kinshiro's parents are outrageously wealthy doesn't mean that they have snobbery to match. They are in fact practical and open-minded individuals, and so weren't above sending him to a normal summer camp just like normal little boys even though they themselves come from affluent backgrounds. It might even be said that it was just another one of the many opportunities that they wanted their son to have in life – to see how 'commoner boys' (Kinshiro's later expression, when socio-economic status suddenly meant something to him where it hadn't before. Another unfortunate side effect of Atsushi's, and subsequently En's, "betrayal" at work. It's likely that he's just purposely putting on airs though.) spend their summer breaks.

But why was he there in the first place, you ask?

His parents were called away on a business trip for the first two weeks of summer and didn't want to leave him alone either at home or in a hotel room the whole time. Atsushi's family always went away on family vacations the whole first month, and they would have gladly taken Kinshiro too, only that the Kusatsus didn't want to intrude upon their hospitality or their family time. (It didn't help that the boy has tons of allergies and going away to foreign places potentially means lots of vaccinations. A lot of which Kinshiro is also allergic to.) This made it that summer camp was left as the only viable option.

So here he was, standing in a crowd of other pre-pubescent boys after having said his farewells to his parents – tears from his mother, encouraging words from his father, and hugs all around – and was now waiting for his name to be called to know which cabin he would be staying in as well as his supervising counselor for the next two weeks.

As he quickly learned, his counselor was an older boy of around sixteen who introduced himself as 'Cleats' and he was the head of him and seven other boys of his age. He lead them around the campsite on a tour pointing out various facilities and where the different activities would be taking place, chatting amicably and ended the tour in front of their cabin labeled _Kuromatsu_. He told the boys to quickly put their things inside and then to come back out and sit in a circle.

When they came back out Cleats quickly re-went over the rules, taking any more questions and then once that was over with he announced that they would be playing an ice-breaker game.

"Okay, so this is how it's going to work. We're going to go clockwise and introduce ourselves saying our names, what activities you signed up for, or in my case, which activity I'll be supervising, which subject you most enjoy at school, and one additional fact about yourself of your choice. I'll start. So, hello again, my name is Cleats as you already know, I'll be supervising and teaching soccer at the field. My favourite subject at school is math and I've won four trophies for playing competitive soccer outside of school."

The boys all shouted exclamations of "cool!" or "amazing!" at that last statement and it took a few minutes to get everyone quiet again, with the exception of Kinshiro who was always quiet around people he didn't know.

The boys went around introducing themselves until finally it was Kinshiro's turn. "A-anno, my name is Kusatsu Kinshiro and I signed up for swimming and tennis. My favourite subject in school is Japanese and I really wanted to sign up for archery, but I didn't because I'm too young." At this final admission Kinshiro blushed and ducked his head. The other boys laughed good-naturedly and he looked up when he felt someone muss his hair.

"Thank you for sharing with us Kusatsu-kun, I hope you still have fun anyhow. As soon as you turn twelve you can though, so you'll just have to wait a few more years. But they'll go faster than you know it, trust me."

"You sound like an old man Cleats-senpai!" hollered a boy named Tanaka.

"Yeah like a Grandpa!" another boy, Hirota, agreed.

Cleats stood up and playfully waved a fist at them. "Is that how it is then, eh?" he said in a fake creaky old man voice. "Git going then you young whippersnappers, you have half an hour left until your first activities start!"

The boys of _Kuromatsu_ scattered some poking their heads in to other cabins in their area of the camp grounds, others running down to the meeting area, and Kinshiro and another boy, Matsuda, went back into their cabin to change into their swimming trunks.

 _Maybe this won't be so bad._ Kinshiro thought with a smile.

A short time later found him and another thirty or so boys lined up on the shore in front of the swimming area of the lake (as apposed to the boat launch for the canoes, kayaks or sail boats) listening for the instructions on the mandatory swimming test, and being shown the boundaries for where they could go. It took a little bit but soon everyone got in the water and eventually got their wristbands as proof that they could swim. Some it took more than one try but Kinshiro got his on his first try without difficulty.

After doing some laps and floating around aimlessly the boy quickly became bored and arrived at the conclusion that this wasn't going to be much fun if he didn't try to make friends with someone. But since he is shy, and when he looked around at all the other kids who seem to be having fun without him he just sighed, wishing that Atsushi was there with him and hauled himself back onto the dock. Padding over to get his beach towel from over the rope barrier, he then wrapped it around himself and then promptly sprawled himself on the dock as far from the water as he could get.

Succumbing to daydreams he looked at the cheerful looking puffy white clouds in the sky. Losing himself in staring up into the vast blue, he eventually felt his lids grow heavy and start to droop. He thought that it might not be so bad if he slept for a little right now since it would make the time until it was lunch pass so much quicker.

Just as he had dropped into a light slumber he didn't register that the splashing and sloshing of water become louder to him off of his right which then suddenly stopped right next to the dock where he lay.

The stillness endured but for a few moments.

"Hey," said a low (for a child's) voice.

Kinshiro didn't stir.

"Hey," said the boy a little louder this time.

A tiny scrunch of the eyelids.

In an action that would have been seen as mischievous had the boy's face not been drawn into such a serious line he dipped a hand into the water again and then began to sprinkle droplets of water onto the napping boy's face and arms (which were exposed due to the towel slipping off sometime during his sleep).

"Hey!"

The silver haired boy groaned and turned over away from the pest interrupting his nap.

"Alright, you asked for it." Declared the sandy haired boy as he prepared his final onslaught.

"I said HEY!" was Kinshiro's only warning before having cold lake water being dumped all over his face.

He shot up sputtering, quickly searching for the one who had assaulted him and found boy his age with sand coloured hair and light blue eyes with a lazy grin on his face.

"Rise and shine Sleeping Beauty!"

"H-hey! What the heck was that for?!" shouted the aforementioned 'Sleeping Beauty'.

The other boy gave a careless shrug as if to say 'well, what else was I supposed to do?'

"You weren't answering."

Kinshiro, who picked up his towel and was wrapping it around himself to provide whatever little dryness it had to offer, glowered.

"Well I'm up now, what do you want?"

"Hey, hey, didn't your mother teach you any manners? Before you ask someone question you've gotta introduce yourself first. Here, I'll start. Hello, my name is Yufuin En. It's nice to meetcha." said the now named Yufuin En, his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Kusatsu Kinshiro," he said curtly. "a pleasure. Or that's what I would say if you hadn't so rudely woken me up. Evidently _your_ mother didn't teach you manners."

"Oooh, such big words. And ouch, maybe you're right about that." The last part was said more to himself than the other boy and he shrugged.

"Ah well, nothing my ol' ma can do anything about while I'm here. Anyway, Kusatsu is it? I was just wondering if you'd want to come and grace me and my pals with your engaging presence until we've got to go line up for lunch. We've got about half an hour left?"

"I'm fine." said the silver haired boy who crossed his arms and turned his head the other way, nose up in the air. This Yufuin kid just rubbed him the wrong way. If he wanted him to come join them so badly then the least he could do was say sorry.

Searching the other's expression he just shook his head and shrugged again.

"Alright, suit yourself then." he said in a tone that was genial at first glance that also managed to convey an exasperated 'have fun by yourself' without actually saying so. Then he turned and waded away.

As soon as the other was out of hearing range the other relaxed his posture and gaped after him. Was that it? After all that trouble was he really not even going to insist that he join them? Apparently not.

Annoyed and a little hurt, Kinshiro slumped back down and waited for the rest of the time to pass for lunch to come, feeling like maybe he should have accepted Yufuin's offer after all.

The next day Kinshiro is more reluctant to enter the water. He hangs back the longest, prolonging having to go into the water by draping and folding his towel in different ways on the ropes, putting on his sunscreen and fiddled with his goggles until he sighed. Knowing that he could no longer put off the inevitable without looking foolish, he turned to head to the water off of the small beach and ended up face to face with Yufuin.

"You all done? Are you actually going to go in the water now?" he asked with a hint of amusement.

Kinshiro saw the questions for what they were. If yesterday was any indication, he had a strong feeling that this was last time that the other boy would try to reach out to him. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice otherwise he'd continue to be lonely for the next twelve days.

"Yes, I'm coming." he said with a small smile.

"Great," Yufuin said with a genuine grin. "Anyway, those two are Sasaki and Omura up ahead of us." He gestured to the two boys who were a bit farther up ahead of them but still hanging back from the others. "You up for Marco Polo?"

"Sure!"

"Alright, race you to the end of the dock! Last one off has to start as Marco!" En laughs shoving Kinshiro off to the side slightly then running ahead to inform his friends of his idea.

"You're on Yufuin!" he yells and determinedly sets off after him.

As it turns out, though he is the fastest of the four of them he ended up coming in third and so it was Omura who started off as Marco. Then it was Sasaki who had a long turn until Kinshiro got caught and then Omura again and En evaded being Marco the longest and so was accused of cheating. He was (a little) until on Kinshiro's third turn as Marco he finally tagged En with the help of the others and they all made sure that he had the longest turn of all before it was time for lunch.

They all went up together, sat at a table and chatted animatedly. Even Kinshiro who had finally started to break out of his shell, since it's not hard to get worked up by a good game of Marco Polo.

The rest of Kinshiro's first time at camp continued to be spent in this way playing games in the lake, playing fiercely at tennis, buying sweets at the tuck shop, catching up on the days events with everyone at dinner, and stories and songs at the campfire every night before bed.

Too soon, two weeks had passed. He was just as happy as his parents were to see them again, narrating the fortnight's events to them that he may have missed on the phone. They smiled to each other at seeing their son so happy at his experience wearing an expression that he only makes around or talking about Atsushi, and were glad at his budding confidence.

After they all finished loading up the car Kinshiro excused himself so he could go and say his final goodbyes. He had seen off Matsuda, his cabin friend earlier, as well as Sasaki and Omura all having already left with their parents. All that was left was one final farewell.

He was standing at the path leading into the site half in the shade with an unusually thoughtful look on his face.

"Hey Yufuin!" called Kinshiro.

En looked up towards him with a startled look on his face, which was quickly smoothed over.

"'Sup Sleeping Beauty?"

Kinshiro made a face at the nickname briefly then quickly smiled again. "Bye Yufuin!"

"Later, Kusatsu."

The next words Kinshiro said burst forth without any thought, but as he said them, he knew them to be true.

"See you next year!" he called with a wave.

En smiled.

"See you next year, Kusatsu." he replied waving back.

Both parted ways here feeling lighter than before.


End file.
